LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation Than Facebook & Twitter [New Data]

Social media can be a huge contributor to a company's lead generation efforts in both B2B and B2C. But how efficient are the various different social channels in directly driving leads? In a recent study of over 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).

LinkedIn's conversion rate also outranked social media as a channel overall. In other words, of all the traffic that came to these business' websites via social media, .98% of that traffic converted into leads, compared to LinkedIn's 2.74%.

So why might LinkedIn be the most efficient social channel for lead generation, and how can you use that to your advantage?

People join LinkedIn to showcase their career, work expertise, and find content and information to make their professional lives better. So businesses who target other businesses will naturally find a higher concentration of their target market on LinkedIn. Also, when someone visits LinkedIn, the person is most likely in a business-focused mindset, helping business' content perform inherently better.

So what about B2C-focused businesses? Less content is generally posted to LinkedIn than to other social networks, which is probably because people almost exclusively post marketing-related content as opposed to their children's photos or social "chatter." This means there is less clutter on LinkedIn, making a person capable of consuming a higher percentage of the content that's active on LinkedIn at any given time. In other words, a business' marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.

So what should you do when you find a specific social channel that's a slam dunk for your business?

How to Leverage Your Business' Top-Performing Social Network

1. Invest time and effort to grow that specific channel. The trick, however, will be trying to maintain a quality network as your community scales.

2. Post more of the targeted content that's working. If you notice people are specifically really enjoying blog posts, webinars, or something else -- keep offering it! How can you tell what content's working? Monitor comments, likes, shares, and clicks.

3. Find more opportunities to post relevant CTAs. Can you sprinkle more lead generation opportunities throughout your social media updates? It's quite a balancing act, but a solid mix of calls-to-action (CTAs) and other content is healthy.

Hi Rebecca, thanks for sharing this article. It has some interesting findings.

I wonder, however, if you could specify what use of LinkedIn is driving up conversation rates. For example, is this people using LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn company pages, LinkedIn advertsing, etc. Naturally, it is a perfect fit for B2B marketing, so was surprised to see you mention B2C as well.

The reason we would often stay away from LinkedIn for brand marketing is that it is not as easily configured for brands, but rather for individuals. And its advertising model is much more expensive.

Appreciate your view!

Many thanks, Emer

Rebecca Corliss

Great questions, Emer.

First - this data only looked at organic efforts from each network (not advertising).

Also, the data didn't give insight into specific efforts w/in each channel, but that would be fascinating to check out.

Thanks for coming back to me Rebecca! Helps to clarify. The article does bring to light how valuable LinkedIn can be, especially for the small business man or woman who does not have a large marketing budget.

Many thanks, Emer

Catarina Duarte

Hi, We have interesting results with the use of groups. We create specific campaigns and promote them in specific groups.

Be very careful about jumping to the conclusion that LinkedIn "leads" are better than anything.

We invested very heavily in a LinkedIn PPC program that ran for well over 1 year. We also share content with relevant groups religiously. What we found was that yes, lots of people on LinkedIn will want to click on your ads and download you content, or follow interesting links to your blog and download your content. In fact, the form conversion rates for our LinkedIn campaigns were over 20% -- crazy high.

The problem was that most of the "leads" were either independent consultants (probably looking to steal our ideas) or job seekers (wanting to "get smarter" in hope that would help them land their next job). We got lots of leads, but very few were remotely qualified to buy from us, despite meeting some very strict filtering criteria or being very selective about our groups.

My warning to all marketers: Don't confuse people filling out forms and downloading free content (a.k.a. "leads") with people who have a need for what you sell and who are in a position to either drive or significantly influence the buying decision.

LinkedIn is an amazing research tool to find new prospects and building brand awareness, but so far, LinkedIn "leads" have not converted into much new business for our company.

LinkedIn is great - I recommend its use in one form or another to most of my B2B clients. It can be used to good effect to build online presence for free, and advertising is so precise you can almost target an individual user.

BUT - there is always a but - start with your audience not with the medium. If they like LinkedIn use it; but if, heaven forbid, they're besotted by BeBo use that instead. Be careful though, if you're of a certain age your intentions might be mistaken!

I am not really sure of how effective Linkedin can be for B2C businesses. Anyone has thoughts on how an eCom company can benefit via Linkedin. We tried some linkedin ads, but the cost per sale was way too high for us to continue to invest in it.

LinkedIn is a powerhouse, but rarely used by a large number of people who could really benefit from it. I presented a social media for business class the other day and while 95% of the people in the room had Facebook and a Facebook page, only 8% had LinkedIn accounts. Scary!

Hi Rebecca, nice stats! I love research on conversion rates... always nice to benchmark! But what is the definition of a lead in this context? Is it simply a person leaving their contact details, or is this after some sort of qualification has been applied? And if it's the first, is this before or after all the "mickey mouse" contacts have been filtered out? As Dario Priolo points out correctly, not all contacts can be considered sales leads...

Rebecca Corliss

Hi Annemeike,

A lead in this case is someone who filled out a form on the person's website, ie "Request a Consultation" or "Get a Free Trial" -- Good question! Glad you like the information!

Great post Rebecca! I find that like minded people reside in the LinkedIn community, vs. the other social platforms. Twitter would be my 2nd B2B pick for a social channel. I don't have enough data or experience with any Google + success yet. Thanks for sharing :-)

I am curious if anyone has any data to support a quantified value to running campaigns on LinkedIn.

@Dario, I appreciate your input, but I need something solid to determine how much resource I can take from our marketing and devote to LinkedIn. Are there any specific case studies that anyone is aware of?

I find this post to be very true for the industry I work in. We offer software development services in the B2B sector and most of our campaigns have a remarkable success rate. By campaigns I don't refer to PPC ads on Linked In (we have never used these), but more of a direct targeted approach. Sometimes it is a direct approach to individuals that usually has a lower lead generation, and most of the times we target Linked In groups. Usually our campaigns are structured in a way that we offer a specific service, so that the targeted leads can recognize their specific needs. I am satisfied with how our campaigns are performing on Linked In so far and will continue to use it. So my conclusion will be, that Linked In i mostly for B2B industry, especially the services sector. And if a lead knows what they need, they will come to you.